messageboard scripts: common errors?

[theuberpuppy]

Hi, i've got a script i downloaded online, intact and apparently fully workable (cos i'm lame and haven't started learning cgi scripts and stuff....still busy learning javascript and others :D).

Anyway, it's a message board...has a database file to write to and from...and a .pl file (and one or two others but i think they're peripheral). Now, my problem is that when i followwed the instructions and uploaded onto my server (unix), it didn't function. As i haven't played with the script, what possible common errors could i have come across. Apologies for the intense vagueness of this request :D

My one idea is that the whole thing wsa supposed to write to a file name.html....but i read the source and stole the relevant bits and stuck them in a page i already created (it's part of a much larger site and needs really to stay in style). Could i have screwed something up there?

It's a lot of code so i haven't stuck it up - but if anyone's brave enough i'll stick it up if required/desired.

p.s. I chmoded everything exactly as it said (about 12 times in fact :rolleyes: ).

cheers anyone

[Jona]

If you haven't "played" with the script, why ask about what could happen? Wouldn't it be better to try it out, and if you find an error, then post? ;)
(Unless I misunderstood you, of course.)

[J]ona

[MotherNatrsSon]

My one idea is that the whole thing wsa supposed to write to a file name.html....but i read the source and stole the relevant bits and stuck them in a page i already created (it's part of a much larger site and needs really to stay in style). Could i have screwed something up there?

I'd say you probably did if you stole "part" of the code. It is an all or none situation there.

MNS

[theuberpuppy]

hmm, yeah, two good points.

Sorry, firstly i should correct what i wrote - i didn't steal any cgi code - i changed the html code. Basically another accurate way orf saying what i did was to add some stuff to the body, above and below what the original page had written. And then i added some javascript to the header to support the stuff i put in the body. SO the basic code was all identical, same id names same everything.

And the reason i haven't 'played' with the code is that i have absolutely no clue how to program in t his language (perl, i think). So my playing would almost definitely resovle nothing =0(

But thanks for the answers ... i'll keep trying, adn when i get some time to learn some perl then i'll paly and resolve the issues. I'm not under time pressure or anything so think this project may take a back-burner for a bit...annoying but currently unfrotunately necessary, given other projects do have time pressures. But again, thanks for the help.

Cheers
Al:)